As I mentioned recently, I’ve adopted a new rescue puppy! So it’s no surprise that I’ve got dogs and puppies on my mind. In addition to making a DIY pet gate, I came up with a way to make paper dog boxes with my Cricut!

I’ve designed three variations: one that looks like my two-month-old Border Collie puppy, one that looks like my 3-year-old Golden Retriever mix dog, and one that looks like my Alaskan Malamute gone these 14 years now. But you can make yours any way you want.

Here’s my little Chloe with her paper dog!

My Hunter, a Golden Retriever/Lab rescue, with his paper dog…

And my Kippi with the Alaskan Malamute paper dog…

A closer look at the Golden paper dog:

And a better look at the sweet little Border Collie paper dog:

Inspiration for these paper dog boxes came from paper-replika, who made some super cute printable dog papertoys a while back and shared them under a Creative Commons license. I converted their basic design to the Cricut and make my own design tweaks — a longer body (my dogs have long tube bodies!), more rounded features (because puppies are soft!), bigger heads (because big heads are cute), different ears and tails, and extra things like collars and tags!

Then I thought this papertoy would be even better if it were a box! So I designed a trapezoidal box that fits under under the dog. But if you don’t want or need this to be a box, you can just make paper dogs and puppies that stand on their own.

So now let me show you how to make paper dog boxes! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

Materials to Make Paper Dog & Puppy Boxes

The free cut files/patterns (they are in my resource library — to get the password to it, fill out the form at the bottom of this post)

How to Make Paper Dog & Puppy Boxes

To begin, cut out your cardstock using my free paper dog box SVG, DXF, or PDF files found in my resource library. I have two different dog designs — one is modeled after my border collie puppy and the other is modeled after my golden retriever dog. Feel free to change the size of these, too!

IMPORTANT: These files have SCORELINES in them. I’ve grouped each scoreline with the section it goes with. You’ll need to first UNGROUP the main group, then change the layers of scorelines to “Score” in Cricut Design Space, and then attach the score layer to the cut layer that goes with it. If you’re not sure how to score or how to set layers to score, please read my Cricut Scoring Tools & Tips tutorial.

When you are done cutting everything out, you’ll have a head, a body, a box, and then various miscellaneous pieces like a tongue, ears, tail, eyes, nose, and collar.

If your dog’s ears have multiple layers, go ahead and glue those together now. Note that there are tabs on the bottom that should be folded while you’re at it.

If you are going to put a collar on your dog, fold and glue it to the body now.

Now you can stop here and just have a paper dog or paper puppy. But if you want a paper dog BOX, keep going! Take the box piece and fold it in, both big folds and tab folds.

Now glue the tabs to the sides to form the box.

When you’re done, you can put the box in the bottom!

Here are all the cute paper dog boxes I made! Which one would you like to adopt?

You can really make a lot of different dog breeds just by using different color of paper, different styles and sizes of ears and tails, and different markings. It’s really lots of fun!!

Free Cut Files to Make Paper Dog & Puppy Boxes

You can get the password to my resource library that has ALL of my free cut files in it by filling out this form:

If you make these 3D paper dog and puppy boxes, please show me. I’d love to see how you made yours look unique! If you made yours look like your dog, be sure to include a photo of your dog, too! You can email your photos to [email protected] or post them in our Facebook group and I will include them on this page for the world to see!

About Jennifer

Jennifer Marx is a designer, an enthusiastic crafter, a lifelong teacher, and a proud overcomer of a variety of life's challenges. In her spare time she loves to play D&D and video games, garden, sew 16th c. costumes, and go to Disney. She lives a full, happy life in beautiful Ann Arbor, Michigan with her partner Greg, her teen daughter Alexa, and their two dogs, Hunter and Chloe.

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Comments

Oh my! These sure are super cute! We don’t have a dog 🙁 but maybe someday we will. Ironically you made two of my boys favorite dogs (golden retriever and husky/malamute) We love border collies too as my brother is a farmer and has had many working dogs-border collies mostly. We get to visit them frequently to get our doggie fix!

Oh Jennifer! Congratulations on your new best friend. I once had a Queensland Heeler (I think she also had a little beagle in her, too…) She was from the pound & about 3 months old & we loved each other for about 12 years. She was soooooooo smart. She would jump up on the piano bench, put her paws on the keys & look at the sheet music & howl!

Thank you for the free file so we can make a little replica of your sweet Chloe.

I love your work, Jennifer. I will be trying all three of these adorable little puppies. We have a greyhound so I won’t be able to make one look like her but if I ever get a day off from work and responsibilities I might experiment. I made your fairy house card and love it! Even my hubby who doesn’t care much for my crafts was fascinated with it. Keep up the excellent work. And enjoy up-north.

Yes, download them, open the folder, open the PDF version, print it, and use it as a template to cut whatever color of paper you’d like to uses for various parts … or just cut the PDF print-out itself.

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